King of Franks since the death of his father Pepin the Short in 768, Charlemagne started his policy of kingdom expansion and forced conversions from 772. In 800, he took advantage of the fall of the Byzantine emperor and of the benevolence of the Pope: he was crowned emperor and thus affirmed himself as the most important personage of Christendom. …

http://expositions.bnf.fr/carolingiens This website is the one of the exhibition entitled « Carolingian Treasures », organized by the BNF in the spring of 2007. For the first time in the last fifty years, an exhibition was dedicated in France to Carolingian Renaissance, which took place in the reigns of Charlemagne (768-814), Louis the Pious (814-840) and Charles the Bald (840-877). Carolingian Renaissance was …

This video seems to me very interesting. In this one, Protestant pastor and theologian Christian Cuthbert is explaining how the Carolingian Church Reform took place. He is especially talking about the Heliand and the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Below is the transcript of his speech. « We’re going to spend a little time talking about the reforms that Charlemagne enacted …

During this interview, a journalist is questioning church historian Charles A. Coulombe about Charlemagne’s sanctity. He’s asking more precisely « why is Charlemagne not canonized yet ? ». Mr Coulombe is reminding firstly that canonization is not determined solely by the Church : to canonize a catholic, miracles should happen and be proved by a competent authority. Then, he is explaining …